Tennessee baseball went undefeated in the Clemson Regional, beating Charlotte 17-3 across two contests and Clemson 6-5 to reach the program’s third consecutive Super Regional.
In the Regional Championship, the Vols dominated Charlotte 9-2 to coast to the regional win. In the win, Christian Moore led Tennessee’s offense with two home runs and four RBIs on the day.
On the mound, Drew Beam turned in a great start. The sophomore pitched six innings and gave up just four hits and two earned runs while tying his career-high in strikeouts with 10.
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Moore, who ultimately won the Regional MVP, and Beam met with the media alongside head coach Tony Vitello after Tennessee’s win over Charlotte.
Everything Moore and Beam said is below. Everything Vitello said can be found here.
Christian Moore
On the pitching depth and facing Tennessee’s pitchers in the offseason:
“It wasn’t fun. I will tell you that right now. But in the fall, these guys prepared us for what we are facing right now. Facing them in the fall, facing Beam, (Chase Dollander), (Chase) Burns, (Seth Halvorsen), you can go on and on. The list continues. They definitely prepared us for situations like this. Going in there with runners on base, you are probably going to get sliders sometimes. I have seen some of the best sliders just from our staff in the fall and before the season.”
On Robert Woodard’s video game comment
“I think for me I wouldn’t say I had video game numbers but it was a good weekend. At the end of the day all I want to do now is win each and every day. Just survive and advance. I think I can say the same for every guy that’s out there. Whether that’s I go two-for-two with some home runs or zero-for-four with four Ks. Whatever I can do to help this team win. We’re in the postseason now. If you win you advance, if you lose you go home. So just keep winning. That’s kind of my mindset going into this weekend and the weekend we have next weekend.”
On his favorite swing of the weekend and his dad and uncle being here
“Best swing, honestly I’ll go with the double down the line last night. Only because I thought that was kind of like stay inside ball, inside fastball and it was kind of cool to keep my hands in and double down the line. We practice that also all the time. First base setting screen so it was cool to do it.”
“Having them here was just a surreal moment. My dad, he works hard. He’s finally retired so he kind of got to see me play my first college games cause last year when he came down he came at the beginning of the season and I think I got about two or three at-bats. It’s good to have him here and I’m so happy he got to come down and experience that with me.”
Moore on the turnaround from last night’s 14-inning win over Clemson:
“I think the rest was huge for us. When you play 14 innings of a back-and-forth game like that, you need a little time off to get your thoughts back, get your body right. So, the rest was definitely crucial, but we definitely wanted to play. You come here in on the road and knock out the host team, you want to go back out there and compete. I’d say a little bit of both. We needed the rest, but we were also ready to compete today at six.”
Drew Beam
On what went so well with the breaking ball:
“Absolutely. Definitely the curveball was the main pitch that I had going today. That played well with the fastball, I feel like. we had a good game plan. Trusted what coach (Frank Anderson) had for us when we came into it. Just really went with what he had for us.”
On when he knew the offspeed stuff was going to be so sharp:
“Felt really good in the bullpen. Obviously went out in the first inning and tried to mix in a few cutters, a few changeups and the curveball was probably the one that felt the best today. Still throughout the game mixed in some other pitches but it was the one that was feeling good and getting good results so I just kind of stuck with it that way.”
On what the Clemson game was like for him:
“Last night, my main goal was just being a good teammate, hoping that we win and trying to give my vocal— what I can on the bench. Not really trying to think too much about the next day until the next day was here. Take it one day at a time and once the game was over just trying not to have that big game hangover. Just get to sleep and get my mind right. It was good that we won but I had to get to my next task.”
